01. Roll Call.

Harry Mason: Chairman.
Chris Payne: Treasurer and Memberships Administrator.
Amanda Burt: Secretary.
Justin Macleod: Events Co Ordinator.
Mark Tyler: Assistant Web Master.
Catherine McManus: Executive Officer.
Carol Forrester: Executive Officer.

Alicey Hartog, Ann Saunders, Christine Mason, David Norton, David Richards, Greg Hamilton, Ian White, Jackie Glynn, Jaye Ayres, Jim Bradley, John Hosch, John Hinchliffe, John Pitts, John Wells, John Wilsher, Katie Myers, Ken Scott, Lee Garrett, Leon Gilbert, Linda Tyler, Lynette Norton, Mary Hassall, Maurice Pothecary, Michelle Collins, Monique Lannott, Ned Benton, Pamela McCain, Peter Hallam, Phil Hartog, Roma Creech, Rosemary Bradley, Sal Pitts, Sharon Bowell, Stanley Saunders, Stephen Hassall, Steve Pallett, Sue Pallett, Teresa Payne, Trevor Franklin, Wayne Busbridge.

02. Apologies.

Richard Wilkin: Web Master.
Alan Davis, Andrew Payne, Billy Whitcombe, Charlotte Payne, Chrissie Cochran, Elisabeth Standen, Gladys Taylor, Jayne Connor, June Porter, Lisa Peck, Michael Payne, Miriam Raymond, Peter Beasley, Steve Hyde-Dryden, Tony Bowers.

Proposed by: Ann Saunders. Seconded by: Stephen Hassall.

04. Matters Arising From Minutes.

Trevor Franklin: Would like to go back to having a Vice Chair.
Harry Mason: Said that Chris our Treasurer and Memberships Administrator is Vice Chair, but he doesn’t know if it has ever been made Official and asked if Chris could shed some light on the subject.
Chris Payne: He couldn’t remember as it would have been last March. But he asked Trevor if he wanted to go back to having an Official Post of Vice Chair.
Trevor Franklin: Yes. He thinks it would help out a great deal, especially in case of accidents or people going ill or having to resign etc. He knows Chris is Vice Chairman, but he is also Treasurer and Memberships Administrator, and it’s a lot for one person to do. Looking at what’s happened not so long ago. Yes, Harry is Chairman and that’s great. But we would have had somebody ready to step in.
Katie Myers: She would like to second what Trevor said. She thinks it’s a very sensible way to go.
Ann Saunders: She thinks so too. Very much so.
Trevor Franklin: He does as well. Because in the situation we have now where Harry’s taken over for 5 months, if we had a Vice Chair to step in when Ann unfortunately had to step down, it wouldn’t have had to happen.
Harry Mason: That is very true. We need to sort this out then. Could the members leave it with us and we will look at it?
Chris Payne: Yes, we’ll put it on our next agenda and come back with exec decision at the next Meeting.
Steve Pallett: TAFN did start out with a Chair and Vice Chair and did have for several years.
Roma Creech: Should it not be for the TAFN members to decide whether or not we want a Vice Chair, not just left to the Exec?
Chris Payne: His answer to that would be, Yes it is indeed. Now when we last had a Vice Chair, it was back in the days when Bob Whiteside had the job and he felt it was an untenanted position, he was really looking for work to do. And that’s why it was dropped. But what he’s trying to say is, the Exec will discuss it and come back with our proposal to the Members in November. And if it’s what the Members really want, then the position will be in place for the February vote.
Trevor Franklin: He doesn’t think that’s right. Because Bob had resigned and Lee had taken up the post, he believes. And then he left, and it was Paul who decided to drop the post. He’s sorry, but that’s the way he reads it.Elections of a new Executive Committee. Himself and everybody else on the Exec, comes up for re-election then. So it would be appropriate to amend the situation at that time. In the meantime, if the Members will bear with us, we’ll sort it out. Certainly we are here to adhere to the wishes of the Membership, and that is what we do, that he promises us.
Ian White: Said he was worried that the Executive Committee was getting too big. If you are going to add another position, maybe you should consider dropping one of the lesser positions.
Harry Mason: that could also be true. But if you let us have a look at it, at next Thursday Morning’s Meeting, we will come back and tell you all about it at the next Members Meeting. Trevor, will that be ok with you, since you raised this?
Trevor Franklin: It’s fine, Harry. But he thinks that the general consensus of the Meeting is that they would like a Vice Chair. So he’d like the exec to bear that in mind when they have their Meeting.
Harry Mason: He was bearing it mind already.
Then while Harry was keyed up, Amanda sent him a text to say she was harassed by the fact that nobody was going through her to speak, as is the usual procedure. Harry then said that we were breaking protocol, and he should have reminded Members that if they want to talk or ask questions on any item, during the rest of the Meeting, would they please give their name to Amanda first? And then we can have a proper order about things.
Justin Macleod: He understands the Member’s concerns that Chris takes on a lot and a Vice Chair would lessen that, and the constitution does allow for that. However, if we had a separate Vice Chair position, it wouldn’t have changed anything regarding the recent situation. Clause 4.1.1 of the constitution says; If the Chairperson leaves for any reason, with more than 6 months of the current term to go, then the Chair must be re-elected. So regardless of whether we had a Acting Vice Chair from one of the other Exec Members, or an exclusively delegated Vice Chair position, we would still have had to have the Election and the situation would still have played out pretty much exactly as it has.
Trevor Franklin: He’s not arguing about it, he just says can we look back into it. It used to work with Bob Whiteside, all of a sudden it got dropped. Just to have someone on standby, and then you wouldn’t have to call extra meetings. Maybe somebody wants to get involved with it, but doesn’t want to go for Chair, and think to go for Vice Chair and sit in and listen to it, see how it works.

05. Chairman’s Report.

Harry Mason: The first thing he wanted to say, was that we would all have seen an email on the list, from Lee Garrett, about his bother-in-law, and the accident that he has had. He obviously didn’t want to go into details because it’s been on the list, Lee had made it very clear what went on. He would like, from the Chair, to give Lee and his family all the very best with regard to this great tragedy, and they will all be feeling it quite badly today. So on behalf of all TAFN, all our sympathies go with you and yours, and we hope that things will work out for the best in the end. It been a quiet start for this Chair. He’s been in the One To One room, and he will be again next Thursday evening. It’s been a quiet start, he’s pleased to say. Doesn’t want too many ups and downs while he’s in the Chair. It’s been a very pleasant start, and you as members have made him feel very welcome, particularly since this is an interim appointment and we’ve got a new Election coming up next year. The only other
thing he wants to say is to warn Members, there’s an agenda item later, to do with some proposed Constitutional changes. He’s not going to go into details later, because he’s asked his colleague, Justin, who was instrumental in putting these changes together, putting the wording together etc., to have a word with you about it later.
Lee Garrett: Thanked Harry for his kind words and thanked everyone who had emailed him back as it meant a Heck of a lot.
Harry Mason: He forgot something. To welcome Mark Tyler Formally to the Executive Committee.
Mark Tyler: He would like to thank the Exec for having faith in him.

06. Treasurer’s and Memberships Report.

6a. Treasurer’s Report for September.

Opening Balance: £ 1,517.31
Paid In: £ 1,254.00 As Follows

• Auction: £ 20.00
• Bingo: £ 59.00
• Bonus Ball: £ 175.00
• Transfer: £ 1,000.00 From PayPal

Paid Out: £ 1,129.49 As Follows

• and 1 Ltd: £ 71.99
• Auction: £ 65.00 For Delivery of parcels in South of the country.
• Bingo: £ 80.00
• Bonus Ball: £ 212.50 As August was a Super Draw
• Members Gift: £ 400.00 (See Below)
• Tech Support: £ 300.00

Closing Balance: £ 1,641.82

• Savings Accounts Balance: £19,424.66

PayPal Credits: £ 163.85
PayPal Debits: £ 1,000.00
PayPal Balance: £ 1,265.16

Grand Total: £22,331.64

Re Member’s Gift: We at TAFN have acquired a quantity of Recipe Books from Blind Life, Durham. These were originally given out to Members attending the CAMEO Weekend, 1 copy per household. As we have a quantity left over, we have offered them to all Members, again 1 copy per household. The book consists of a number of large print recipes along with the same recipes on 2 audio CDs. If there are any Fully Paid Up Members, wishing to receive a copy, please contact the Treasurer, who will be glad to send you 1. They will be dealt with on a first come, first served basis.

6b. Memberships Report.

We have had 3 new Guests during September and 1 new Member. We have had 3 Members and 9 Guests deleted from our listings, due to the usual problems of not being able to contact them, or as 1 of the Members has written back to say, thank you, but they no longer wish to be part of TAFN, owing to the fact that they’ve moved home, and they’re not able to give the time that they used to, to TAFN. He has written back to them to say that if things do change, then they will be more than welcome to come back.
Harry thanked Chris for his Report and asked Amanda if there were any questions. There were none.

07. Secretary’s Report.

Amanda Burt: She has been doing the usual List and Communicator guidelines, sending out the announcements, and this month she also sent out the survey for the M. A. D. Committee. She hasn’t yet got the lists sorted out, because she has had and still having Skype problems. But hopefully that will be sorted soon.
Harry thanked Amanda for her Report and asked if there were any questions. There were none.

08. Web Master’s Report (Read by the Assistant Web Master.)

Mark Tyler: This Month, himself and Richard have been working on Plugins for Word press, to make it easier for Members as well as the Admin side of it. Also Mark has been doing the Members Profiles, coding and putting them up on the site and that will be live real soon. Also the Members Minutes, for 2013, are nearly complete and all of 2014 Minutes are complete. The Room Templates, at the moment we’re actually having a bit of a problem with, working with Word press. But we are looking into that. However, the Voting Booth Template was a success. He would like to thank Justin for doing the minutes for transcribing and coding them, and Mark put them up on he thinks it was Monday. And also they are having a Web Team Meeting on Sunday to discuss where we go next.
Harry thanked Mark for his report and asked Amanda if there were any questions. There were none.

09. Events Report.

Justin Macleod: Each month, He thinks it going to be a nice short one. But then it just lengthens and lengthens. Which is good really, because it means that TAFN’s calendar is active and everybody chipping in. The coverings and rescheduling: Jackie was absent for 2 of her Midweek Quizzes, so he covered the first 1, as stated at last month’s Members Meeting, and Mark covered the second 1, so thanks very much to him for that. Mark is also covering Chris’s Friday Night Quizzes for the duration of October with the exception of the 31st, for reasons he’ll come to in a minute. There are a few events shifting around. In the Potting Shed is going to move to an as yet to be confirmed date. It’s not receiving the attendance Elisabeth would like, on the 1st Friday of the Month, and 1 of her regulars can’t make it then, so that’s going to move. So watch your emails for the new time. The Book Club is also moving to the 4th Thursday of the month, and that will be announced in more detail by email. The Rock
Show is also moving, in hopes of getting better attendance, Steve Hyde-Dryden’s event. So we’re going to have a little bit of a switch around and see how we like our new places. Speaking of which, Mark did his Music Quiz on the 4th Saturday, for the 1st time, and Tony’s Team Challenge returned, which it’s always nice to have that back, it was well attended and seems to have gone down well. We were due to have an Accessible Devices Presentation by Brian Hartgen of Aztec. That’s been delayed, because of other software things coming out which may be of interest to us. He’s not exactly sure when that’s being rescheduled for, but it is being rescheduled and we will let you know, when we know. Last month, however, wasn’t bereft of Accessible Devices Events. We had Mark’s Q-cast, Pod-cast, Pod-catching event and that seems to have gone down very well. Regrettably he wasn’t able to make it himself. Also on the positive side to report, Open Mike Events. the up take for Open Mike Events lately, has been very
good. That’s improving now, we’ve had an event by Steve Hyde-Dryden, Tony Bowers popular Jukebox Number 1’s, we’ve had a few things from Katie, He’s doing 1 on Sunday, They seem to be taking off a little better now, slow start, but it’s nice to see a heftier trickle coming through. There will be no Armchair Theatre this Sunday, so instead Ian White is going to host something dramatical, the promo about that forthcoming, So thanks to Ian for stepping into the breech and covering for Stephen Hassall. Next it remains for me to tell you about events coming up this month. There’s going to be 2 Halloween Events. 1 on the evening of Thursday 30th, when Chrissie Cochran is going to put on a Halloween Play, with sound effects and music and so forth, entirely performed by various Screen Reader Voices, as you know, you can get very life-like Screen Reader Voices these days. This is a novelty concept come up with by a friend of hers. So she’s going to be putting that on. And then, on the 31st of October we’re
going to have a mish-mash event, which is why there’s no Friday Night Quiz that night, thanks to Chris for giving us that slot. We’re going to have some Home Grown Dramas, Something hopefully from the Creative Writing Group, if we can get the cast together, Something Tony has put together, and a few other things as well. So do come along to that. The long awaited Bonfire Night Event will take place on November 5th. That features all sorts. That should be fun, there’s going to be a bit of Quizzing in there, Lots of History, Interviews with a History Professor and various other people that he won’t give away, but that promises to be something really unique and special. So do come along for that. So it only remains for him to thank all the event hosts, and his wonderful team, and anyone who contributes to events in any capacity. And to remind hosts, if they want to cancel, promote or reschedule an existing event, please write to eventinfo@tafn.org.uk . And if you want to propose a new event, please write to events@tafn.org.uk . 1 item he almost forgot, Catherine will be returning to us in November with her Chain Reaction, and her Friday Morning Quiz and she’ll be re-joining Sandra to Co-host The Aussie Mixed Bag. Independent Life Skills won’t be returning for the moment, due to lack of attendance. But Catherine has come to us with a suggestion of a new event, an online workout. Which he thinks is marvellous, it’s great to see new formats coming into the calendar, so watch out for emails on that.
Harry thanked Justin for his report and asked Amanda if there were any questions. Amanda said yes.
Carol Forrester: She knows everybody’s expecting the Olympus Event. She’s really sorry, she’s had bad problems with her new computer, but they’re all sorted now. So she will be in touch with Justin this week, to discuss when it can be done.
Justin Macleod: He looks forward to that. He does have 1 other quick item. Cry for help. The Advent Calendar is also looming large on the horizon, and we’d love it if there was anyone out there who would like to record a Christmas Greeting for it, much in the style of the previous 2 years, Wishing friends a Merry Christmas or come on and tell us all your favourite Christmas memory of tradition, favourite TAFN Christmas Memory. Do get in touch at events@tafn.org.uk . Or if you see 1 of the events team about, tell them and we will add your name to the hat and record you very soon. It really give the calendar that home grown sparkle. So don’t be shy, and those that have done it before, we’d love you to do it again.
Peter Hallam: He would just like to congratulate Mark on the very interesting and useful Q-cast presentation. He can say that he’s purchased the programme, and although it didn’t do exactly what he wanted in the first place, he is using it. So well done to Mark. It would be good to see more such events taking place, because he just happened to be looking at the Constitution the other day, he reads it from time to time just to keep himself up to date. And it does say in the Core Values of TAFN, that we’re meant to provide advice, information support, and training. So he hopes there will be more such events in the future.
Justin Macleod: We certainly make every effort to put them on. You have The Tech Corner, the 3rd Thursday of the month, you have Leon’s Monthly classes and as many accessible devices events as he can string together. The Cooking Event also Sometimes features accessible kitchen gadgets. So there is a fair amount out there already, not as much as we would like and if you have a gadget or a piece of software which you’re familiar with and would like to review for us, positively or negatively, then do get in touch with the events team and we’ll be happy to make space for that.
Greg Hamilton: He asked if it was necessary to have 2 events email addresses. Could we not have just 1 email address to streamline it?
Justin Macleod: No. Because the events address, goes to the Events Team as a whole. So Joe Blogs’ says, “I want to do an event”, or “I want to complain about this event”, or “I want to complain about the Events Team”, The whole Events Team sees that at once and can immediately start talking about it. Someone gets a response sooner. However, all the traffic that goes to the events info address, and it’s quite a heavy traffic address, because you have the promos for the Midweek Theatres, and Armchair Theatres, and Variety Boxes and so on, all goes to there. And traditionally, the task of sending out the events emails is shared between the Secretary and the Events Co Coordinator, so they are the only ones who need to see that traffic. It would clutter up and confuse the rest of the Events Teams mail boxes and vice versa. The Secretary Doesn’t need to see all the proposed new events traffic and so on. He hopes that makes sense.
Greg Hamilton: Said he took Justin’s answer on board.

10. M. A. D. Update.

Monique Lannott: First of all told us that M. A. D. stood for Mediation Arbitration and Development. The Members of the Committee are: Stephen Hassall, John Hosch, Steve Hyde-Dryden, Herself, and Ian McNamara, and the Executive Representative is Carol Forrester. It’s been very quiet this month, there have been no complaints. We have completed the Technology Survey last month, which has been sent out to the Members. We have received 33 responses as of this point. We would like to encourage as many Members as possible to respond to it, because it is about TAFN’s future, with regards to Communicator and Development of things to do with the Survey. It is quite important for TAFN to get a better idea of how Technology is used. If you haven’t received that Survey, you can contact Amanda on secretary@tafn.org.uk . And if you would like to contact the M. A. D. committee, the email address is mad@tafn.org.uk . You can also visit the web site, www.tafn.org.uk/contact, if you do that, make sure you go to the Dropbox of complaints and concerns. It’s nearly at the bottom of the list, and then you can reach us.
Harry thanked Monique for her report and asked Amanda if there were any questions. Amanda said yes.
Peter Hallam: This is to do with the Survey. He doesn’t have any criticism of the Survey itself or the questions on the Survey. The issue he has is with the timing of it. Because for example, we’re being asked to evaluate the Communicator. Which has known issues and is about to be replaced by a much superior version. Particularly in view of the fact that we’ve committed ourselves, financially for the next 2 years to the new Communicator, he’s wondering about the relevance of it and perhaps this is why you’ve received so few responses, because it doesn’t really relate to him at the moment. He can’t really evaluate something that we don’t have. He’s used Communicator 3 on VIP Conduit, but it’s a different evaluation. He’s just wondering if it would be more relevant to have something similar next year, after we’ve all been using the new Communicator for a while.
Justin Macleod: Having something similar in the future, would be a very good idea, and that wouldn’t invalidate the results of this survey, it would serve as an excellent comparison with what is currently being produced. So we’re gaining Members opinions of the current Communicator, remember the survey isn’t just about that, it’s about the other technology that they use. So we have their current experience of the Communicator compared with a future experience of a future Communicator, might inform a future Exec Committee on how urgent Client Development needs to be. Now as far as the current Exec is concerned, Client Development is still a very viable and quite desirable long term option. We have as Peter said we have committed this money to VIP Conduit, and we’re very glad to be about to receive Communicator 3, but looking ahead to the long term future, sort of, 4 or 5 years, what Client will we be wanting then? As we’ve discovered this year, Client Development is a very lengthy process, so if the
next Exec chooses to continue the Client Development work that we’ve begun, they will have this Survey to tell them what other Technology Members use, that they might want to make a better Client compatible with, and tell them various other things, and then they might want to do another 1 next year, to find out whether people are fine with the new Communicator and perhaps Client Development isn’t quite as urgent. But that of course would be up to the future M. A. D. Committee. Principally the new M. A. D. And Executive Committees.
Chris Payne: Not wanting to be shot down in flames, he’s looked at the Survey, and he should have noticed it before hand. He asked Monique to remind Members when they needed to have the Survey back by. He’s got a feeling it could be this coming Saturday, but he could be wrong.
Monique Lannott: Said that it was her mistake. She forgot that bit. The deadline for that is Midnight on Saturday October the 11th. And she takes Peter’s point, but it’s not just this Communicator. Certain things about this Communicator will be changing, other fact, such as it will only work on Windows will not be changing. So that side of the evaluation is definitely important.
Amanda Burt: Said she will put out another message after the Meeting to remind Members of the deadline.
Carol Forrester: She was just going to say basically the same as Justin. If a new Committee comes in, at least they’ll have the Survey from now, instead of waiting, and if we ever have our own communicator, it will all come in handy.
Stephen Hassall: One of the things behind this Survey, is that in years to come, many of the younger element, are going to have portable devices. There’s no 2 ways about it. this is why we want to know the way forward basically. And the object of this Survey, is to know the way forward. Because there are so many devices,we probably can’t imagine them at the moment. But in 5 or 6 years time, what will we have? They’re going to say, “Well it’s all very nice having it on Windows, but I want it on the go.” He’s not likely to, but the younger are quite likely to want it, there and then.
Greg Hamilton: He thinks if you have a Membership organisation, and people decline to fill out Surveys, in their own interest, then they deserve what they get. And the other thing he was thinking of, He’s not Particularly in favour of this idea, but if Surveys come out with a very low response rate, and he thinks we’re talking about 13 or 14 per cent at the moment, is it worth having a prize draw? So 1 survey is drawn out at random and the winner gets say £25 Marks and Spencer voucher or something. Just as an enticement to get them in. He’s not keen on it, but it is something people do.
Harry Mason: Well there have been some interesting points made there. All of which need to be taken on board as time goes on.

11. The Proposed Constitution Changes.

Harry said he’s pretty new to this job as we all know, and he’s not really familiar with what has gone on regarding the Constitution. So he’s asked Justin, who was instrumental in getting these changes together, if he will take us through the changes and explain what it’s proposed to you as Members.
Justin Macleod: These are proposed Constitutional Amendments the Exec’s been thinking of enacting basically since it’s Election. It’s no secret That the last Election from an administrative point of view, wasn’t a great success, through nobody’s particular fault. But these Constitutional Amendments, we hope, will enable the next and future Elections to go more smoothly. He will try and be as brief as possible. The Amendments look more extensive than they really are. Anyone wishing to follow along with him or to look at them at their own pace, can switch to the Members Room, make sure you’re in the room, press F6, you’ll see a web page, which the Constitutional Clauses that are effected will be displayed. You have the original Clause first, and then you have the Amended Version. In previous Elections, there have been 2 problems. People don’t get all their Voting Emails on time, or the Vote Counters don’t receive all the Votes back. That was a big problem in the last Election. Also, through no fault in particular of anybody, but Candidates submitting themselves for Executive Election, write Profiles, these days, to say a little bit about themselves, such as what they’re able to do and what they can bring to the job. Now some of the Profiles written, in previous Elections, haven’t always been strictly accurate, have perhaps been unintentionally a little prejudicial, to the Election process. But the Constitution as it stands, is very specific. It says: 42 days prior to the Annual General Meeting, the Nomination Period will start. So Candidates will start putting themselves forward. The Nomination Period ends, 28 days before the Annual General Meeting. And on the same day, that the Nomination Period ends, the Voting Period starts. This gives the Exec, no time to make sure that all the Profiles are fair and accurate. And it gives very little time to compile the Voting Email, to send out with the number of Candidates for each Position. So what we’ve done, is we Propose putting in an extra day, into that
procedure. So it now reads 44 days instead of 42 days before the Annual General Meeting, the process will start. It will end, at the end of the 31st day before the Annual General Meeting. So it will end, at midnight 30 days before the Annual General Meeting. And the Exec will have the whole 30th day, to look at Profiles, talk to Candidates and produce the Voting Email. And then 29 days before the Annual General Meeting, the Voting Period will begin. Now we’ve introduced another amendment here. So far the Constitution only provides for Email Voting. You can only submit Votes for Exec Elections by Email. We’ve trialled the Voting Booth, twice now, and it seems to have been quite successful. And our thinking is, if you don’t receive a Voting Email, for some reason, then you can pop in the Voting Booth and Vote there. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t receive a Voting Email. If you lose your Voting Email, and a bit disorientated, don’t know what to do, the Voting Booth is open every other day, so you can just pop in there at a time convenient to you and cast your Vote when both the Vote Counters are present. We needed to change the wording of the Constitution slightly, so it now says: Vote conducted by Email or Other Suitable Electronic Means. This enables future Executive Committees, if they wish, to introduce Web Based Electronic Voting Strategies, that are obviously suitably fair, and secure. But for now, we’re just putting it in to accommodate the Voting Booth, and he’s sure by now all of us know how that works. So the Email and/or Voting Booth, Voting Period continues from 29 days before the Annual General Meeting, to 16 days before the Annual General Meeting. So midnight on the 16th day before the Annual General Meeting, Voting stops. We then have the whole of the 15th day for Vote Counters to convene and make sure their Votes tally. Because until quite late on in the proceedings last time, they didn’t tally. And we had quite a headache sorting it all out. So we have extra time to make sure Vote Counters numbers of Votes tally, we have the whole of the 15th day to do that. And then 14 days before the Annual General Meeting, we’re back up with the Constitution as it stands today. The Special Meeting takes place at which, the Exec is announced. So what we’ve basically done is, we’ve put in 2 days wiggle room, into the Constitution, to allow us more resilience, more checks and balances in case anything goes wrong. And we’ve opened ourselves up to other forms of Electronic Voting. Now he appreciates that, that is a heck of lot to take in, and for that reason, this is only the first announcement of these Proposed Amendments. There’s going to be some time, he forgets exactly how long was said it would be, a week or 2 weeks, for people to talk about it with us, bring any questions they have to us, before the actual Voting Period begins. So this is just the first announcement. He hopes he has put it clearly enough, and he hopes people understand what we’re trying to do. But for now,
with Harry’s permission, now the firs opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have.
Harry asked Amanda if there were any questions. There were none. Harry then said that as there were no questions at the moment, if people wanted to speak to Exec Members about this, then there is always the usual one to one or lounge chat coming up as Justin says, prior to the beginning of the Voting Sequence. And he doesn’t think that as there are no questions, that we can take that any further at this time. So we look forward to hearing from anyone who has questions that they think of later, and you can come and discuss with us on a one to one basis, within the next 2 weeks from now. So before we come to Any Other Business, as you are aware, we have tried this Thursday Night Meeting on a couple of occasions before tonight. We have roughly, and he’s sure Chris will put him right if he’s wrong, 45 Members in the room tonight. What we as an Exec would like to know, is whether Members would like to trial, This Thursday Night Meeting on a semi-permanent basis, for between 3 to 6 months. What he would like Members to do, is not a Formal Vote, but if you Object, the move from Sunday to Thursday, Then please Key up and say so, as soon as he releases the key now. If you’re in Favour of Thursday Nights, then don’t say anything. He only wants to hear from those who Object to the Move.
Alicey Hartog: Disagrees, because she’s not always home on time for the start.
Peter Hallam: Disagrees, Because he noticed from the apologies that we got this evening, that there were quite a few regular’s names in those apologies. People who would normally attend on a Sunday afternoon.
Chris Payne: With the people who came in late, we have actually got 48 Members in here tonight, which as he said at the beginning, is a Record this Year. And to answer your query there Peter, the Majority of people who have sent in their apologies tonight, are the same people who would have sent in apologies on a Sunday as well.
John Wells: Would Object, on a Personal basis, Because it means Switching Leon’s lessons which he enjoys, and it Clashes with his Maldon Chess Night.
Monique Lannott: Well she Doesn’t Disagree with it. Yeah, there are always people who don’t like this as much as they like the Sunday. But on the other hand, there are also people who can’t make it on a Sunday, and who really appreciate the change.
Alicey Hartog: What she meant to say was that she can’t guarantee to attend from the Beginning, because she is not always home on time.
Roma Creech: Does it have to be on the 1st Thursday of the month?
Justin Macleod: Yes, because of other events that take place. But it is actually the 2nd Thursday of the month, because Leon kindly agreed to switch his Computer Class for us. But the other Thursdays are all taken up with events.
Harry Mason: Right then, from what he’s heard, there have only been about 4 Objections. So he would therefore, Propose from the Chair, That we Trial the Members Meeting, on the 2nd Thursday of the month, for the next, did we say 3 or 6 months Chris?
Chris Payne: He would say 3 months, November, December and January, and re look at it again at that point.
Harry Mason: He wants to make Members aware, that this will be under constant review. It is not set in stone. We will do November, December and January on the 2nd Thursday of the month at 8pm. Thereafter, it will be reviewed. That’s what we’re going to go with, as there have been very few Objections to that situation.
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12. Any Other Business.

Harry asked Amanda if she had received anything.
Lynette Norton: She wanted to propose a CAMEO Committee, Instead of the way the last Cameo was organised. She thinks Chris and Shirley should have had some help. Chris did a very good job, she thinks Shirley was very busy with other things, also she travels a lot, and perhaps doesn’t have the time. And she was wondering if we could have a CAMEO Committee set up to deal with the next one.
Harry asked Chris if he would like to comment on that.
Chris Payne: We’ve so far had 20 responses from the Survey that was sent out. 54 Emails went out and we’ve only had 20 returned. A couple of people have stated that although good work had been done, that a different format to the Committee, even to the extent, of not having any involvement from the Exec Committee. This is something that will be looked at in the new year, it’s not something that needs to be desperately dealt with now. He’s still trying to collate some of the answers into the overall spread sheet that’s being created. Of which a copy will go to Shirley, The Hotel have asked for a copy, so that they can see where errors have been made as far as they’re concerned. On the whole, it has been deemed that it was another successful CAMEO.
Justin Macleod: he wants to say in response to Lynette, while he agrees with her whole-heartedly, that he thinks organising a CAMEO for 90 odd people is a lot of work for only 2 people to take on. And he thinks it would be good to have a larger Committee. It’s always good to to have different people, different ideas coming in, and there might be other people who want to have a go. It’s not really something this Exec could implement, because by necessity, the CAMEO Committee must contain Exec Members. And we don’t know who’s going to be on the Exec come next year. What we could do is put it in the future planning section of this years Annual Report, that the next Exec will look at the CAMEO format following requests from Members. But that’s about all this Exec Committee can do.
Lynette Norton: she didn’t expect anything else. And thanked Justin very much.
Harry asked if Lynette was quite happy with the response she had been give. She said that’ll do.
Harry asked Amanda if there was anything else. Amanda said no. So Harry said the next Meeting would be on Thursday 13th November at 20:00 and closed the Meeting at 21:03.